State Champ Radio Rock
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Jeff Beck, member of The Yardbirds, founder of the Jeff Beck Group and one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time, died on Tuesday (Jan. 10). He was 78 years old.
The news of his death was confirmed in a statement released by his family on Wednesday (Jan. 11). “It is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” the statement reads. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”
The British rocker brought his adventurous and powerful guitar style to The Yardbirds in 1965, when he joined the British band to replace Eric Clapton on the recommendation of fellow session musician Jimmy Page. He spent 20 months in the band, working on the 1966 album Roger the Engineer.
After being fired from The Yardbirds, Beck recorded a number of solo singles produced by Mickie Most, including “Hi Ho Silver Lining” and “Tallyman.” He went on to form his own band, the Jeff Beck Group, featuring vocalist Rod Stewart, bassist Ronnie Wood and drummer Nicky Hopkins, and the group released two albums together, 1968’s Truth and 1969’s Beck-Ola.
In the ’70s, Beck briefly formed a trio with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge and Cactus.
He won eight Grammys and was nominated 17 times throughout his career, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992 and as a solo performer in 2009. Beck recently wrapped up a tour in support of 18, his joint album with Johnny Depp.
See the family’s statement below:
Posters promoting Demi Lovato‘s newest album, Holy Fvck, have been banned in the United Kingdom with the provocative visual being deemed potentially offensive to Christians.
Great Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority announced the decision on Wednesday (Jan. 11) after starting an investigation into the promo material that started popping up all over London. Four people ultimately complained to the watchdog group about the posters’ content, which featured the album’s subversive cover art, according to a report by CNN.
“We considered that the image of Ms. Lovato bound up in a bondage-style outfit whilst lying on a mattress shaped like a crucifix, in a position with her legs bound to one side which was reminiscent of Christ on the cross, together with the reference to ‘holy fvck’, which in that context was likely to be viewed as linking sexuality to the sacred symbol of the crucifix and the crucifixion, was likely to cause serious offense to Christians,” the ASA said in a statement about its decision.
Billboard has reached out to Lovato for comment.
The singer herself had previously wondered how the album could be promoted on radio and in the press when she chose the name of the album. “I remember being the one asking questions, like, ‘Am I gonna be able to say this? And what do I say instead?’” the singer recalled in a July interview with SiriusXM. “And it’s just like, look, it’s f–king rock n’ roll. They’ll bleep you if they need to and, like, if they don’t, even better.”
At the time of its release, Holy Fvck debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and has spawned singles “Skin of My Teeth,” “Substance” and “29.” It also bowed at No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative Albums, earning Lovato their first chart-topping hat trick on those three tallies.
See Lovato’s album cover image below:
Finn Wolfhard goes full method on his latest single. The Stranger Things star and frontman of indie band The Aubreys dropped the Pavement-like slacker anthem “Pieces of Gold” on Tuesday (Jan. 10), a strummy track credited to Ziggy Katz, his character in the upcoming A24 film When You Finish Saving the World.
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The woozy ballad opens with gently plucked bass over a hypnotic, repeating keyboard riff and acoustic guitars as Wolfhard/Katz urgently sings, “Piece of gold, straddling paper/ Owing to nothing and turning to vapor/ The air is thin, the locks are set/ You lift your chin, she feigns regret/ Two high-speed trains on parallel tracks/ Running out of steam not turning back.”
The Jesse Eisenberg written and directed films co-stars Julianne Moore as Ziggy’s uptight mom, and in a description we learn that the high schooler performs his original folks songs for an adoring online fan base from the comfort of his bedroom home studio. “This concept mystifies his formal and uptight mother, Evelyn, who runs a shelter for survivors of domestic abuse,” it reads.
“While Ziggy is busy trying to impress his socially engaged classmate Lila (Alisha Boe) by making his music less bubblegum and more political, Evelyn meets Angie (Eleonore Hendricks) and her teen son, Kyle (Billy Bryk), when they seek refuge at her facility. She observes a bond between the two that she’s missing with her own son, and decides to take Kyle under her wing against her better instincts.”
Eisenberg’s directorial debut (due in theaters on Jan. 20) was adapted from his audio project of the same name and the trailer portrays the sometimes awkward Ziggy getting interrupted by his mom while he livestreams and struggling to maintain a connection to her as she put her focus on Kyle.
A Spotify bio for Katz offers some insight into the singer’s influences, beginning with Elvis, John Lennon and Bob Dylan. “Streaming live from his bedroom in the midwest, Ziggy Katz is a global sensation. Katz burst onto the scene with his hit single, ‘Particles of You,’ a song Pitchfork said, ‘sounded improvised’ and Rolling Stone called, ‘lengthy.’”
The lighthearted origin story adds that Katz followed that first hit up with “Mouth of a Liar” and “Meredith’s Weekend,” a pair of songs that “confirmed Katz’s status as someone who sings and plays guitar all the time.”
Listen to “Pieces of Gold” below.
U2 will release a compilation entitled Songs of Surender in March containing 40 reworked version of tracks from throughout their 40-plus year career. The collection, a seeming companion to singer Bono’s recent memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, is slated to drop on March 17.
The news was announced on Tuesday (Jan. 10) in a minute-long trailer (which featured the word “new” slashed out and replaced with “re-imagined” to describe the album) set to an unplugged, intimate version of the band’s soaring 2000 anthem “Beautiful Day.” The video features a Sgt. Pepper‘s-like animated montage of pictures from throughout the group’s career. At press time the band had not shared the track list for the album.
Sone lucky fans said they got a physical letter (in numbered envelopes) from guitarist The Edge that explained the inspiration behind the album, with some posting what is purported to be a personal message tied to the hashtag #U2SOS40.
“When a song becomes well known, it’s always associated with a particular voice,” The Edge’s handwritten letter begins. “I can’t think of ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ without the reedy timbre of Bob Dylan or ‘All the Time in the World’ without the unique voice of Louis Armstrong. So what happens when a voice develops and experience and maturity give it additional resonance? U2 have been around long enough to know what that is like. It’s true for us all, but it’s particularly true for Bono.”
It goes on to note that most of U2’s songs were written and recorded when the quartet were a bunch of “very young men,” and that they mean something different to the now 61- and 62-year-old members. “Some have grown with us. Some we have outgrown. But we have not lost sight of what propelled us to write those songs in the first place,” he wrote. “The essence of those songs is still in us, but how to reconnect with that essence when we have moved on, and grown so much? Music allows you to time travel and so we started to imagine what it would be like to bring these songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit or otherwise, of a 21st century re-imagining. What started as an experiment quickly became a personal obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation.”
The guitarist known for his epic, echoing riffs said the post-punk urgency of the originals has been replaced with intimacy, with new keys, new chords, new tempos and even some new lyrics. “It turns out that great song is kind of indestructible,” he said. “Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version each song started to open up to a new authentic voice of this time, of the people we are, and particularly the singer Bono has become. I hope you like our new direction.”
Bono has been on a cross-country press tour for his memoir in 40 songs, with RS noting that at the end of the book released in Nov. the singer noted that the Surrender sessions happened during the COVID-19 lockdown. He said that the project gave him a chance to “live inside those songs again as I wrote this memoir,” as well as revisit some lyrics that have been “nagging me for some time. The lyrics on a few songs that I’ve always felt were never quite written. They are now. (I think).”
U2’s most recent album was 2017’s Songs of Experience.
See the Songs of Surrender trailer and one of the letters below.
Foo Fighters were announced as headliners for not one, not two, but three festivals in 2023 on Tuesday (Jan. 10): Bonnaroo, Boston Calling and Sonic Temple Art and Music Festival.
By the time the trio of fests arrives, it will be more than a year since the 2022 death of the band’s drummer, Taylor Hawkins. He unexpectedly passed away during a tour a stop in Bogota, Colombia, last March when the rockers were set to headline the the Estéreo Picnic Festival.
The loss has left a massive and glaring absence within the group as Dave Grohl and his bandmates have mourned the loss of their longtime friend, and it’s still unclear who will serve as the band’s drummer for their upcoming slate of headlining slots. So Billboard wants to know who you think could take a seat behind the drum kit and support the Foo Fighters for what’s sure to be an emotional return to the stage.
An obvious choice would be Grohl himself, considering he would often switch places with Hawkins during shows for the late drummer to front fan-favorite tracks such as “Sunday Rain” off 2017’s Concrete and Gold, and covers of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” and Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar.” However, it’s unrealistic the frontman would be able to do so for an entire set, so we’ve put together a list of friends and fellow musicians who could possibly lend a hand.
Both Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam were good friends with Hawkins, and could honor his legacy at one or more of the dates. Though just 12 years old, viral wunderkind Nandi Bushell has proven she has the chops to play just about anything, and already has a lovely relationship with the band. (She also played on “Everlong” during the band’s Aug. 26, 2021, concert in Los Angeles.) And Hawkins own son, Oliver, joined his dad’s bandmates to play “My Hero” at a tribute concert held at Wembley Stadium last September.
Plenty of other big-name drummers also performed during the tribute show for Hawkins — as well as at a second concert weeks later at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles — including Travis Barker, Stewart Copeland of The Police, the Pretenders’ Martin Chambers, sessions drummers Josh Freese and Omar Hakim, and many others.
Vote for the drummer you’d like to see play Bonnaroo, Boston Calling and Sonic Temple with the Foo Fighters below.
The 2023 Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival will feature headlining sets from the Foo Fighters, Tool, Godsmack, Avenged Sevenfold, Queens of the Stone Age, KISS, Rob Zombie and the Deftones. The event at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio will take place on Memorial Day weekend (May 25-28) after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also slated to perform at the hard rock extravaganza are: Falling In Reverse, Chevelle, Puscifer, Beartooth, I Prevail, Jawbreaker, Sublime with Rome, Bullet For My Valentine, The Pretty Reckless, Pennywise, Trivium, Black Veil Brides and more.
The event marks the third festival date featuring the Foo Fighters to be announced this week, marking the band’s first major performances since the tragic death last March of drummer Taylor Hawkins while on tour in Colombia; at press time the group had not yet announced who will take over for Hawkins.
“We’ve always enjoyed playing Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus and are excited to be a part of this year’s Sonic Temple,” said A7X singer M. Shadows in a statement. “It’ll be a blast to share the stage with Tool, Foo Fighters and others, we can’t wait to see and play for all of our amazing fans again.” Danny Wimmer of Sonic Temple producer Danny Wimmer Presents added, “It’s great to be coming back to Columbus. Foo Fighters, Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, KISS plus 75 more, it’s our biggest lineup ever! There is so much history at Historic Crew Stadium, it truly is the heartbeat of rock for many of us… the excitement surrounding the return of Sonic Temple is unparalleled!”
Among the other acts slated to perform are: Suicidal Tendencies, Anti-Flag, Black Stone Cherry, Born of Osiris, Rival Sons, Senses Fail, From Ashes to New, Awolnation, Nothing More, Grandson, White Reaper, The Bronx and many more.
An exclusive presale for festival email subscribers will begin on Wednesday (Jan. 11) at 10 a.m. ET; fans who sign up for the Sonic Temple email list before 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday (Jan. 10) will receive a dedicated code with first access to buy festival passes; sign up here. The general public on-sale will begin at noon ET on Friday (Jan. 13).
Check out the full lineup below.
Kendrick Lamar, Odesza and the Foo Fighters will topline this summer’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The event set for June 15-18 on the Bonnaroo Farm in Manchester, TN will also feature sets from Paramore, Lil Nas X, Baby Keem, Tyler Childers, Marcus Mumford, Korn, Alesso, Three 6 Mafia, GRiZ, My Morning Jacket, Rainbow Kitten Surprise and girl in red, among others.
The performance from the Dave Grohl-led Foos will mark only the second announced set from the group since the shocking death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March while the group was on tour in Colombia; at press time the group had not yet announced who will take over for Hawkins.
The acts will perform on 10 stages over four days, with more than 150 performances; a selection of the sets will air exclusively on Hulu for the second year, including behind-the-scenes and special footage, with schedules to be announced in the weeks before the fest.
The weekend will kick off on Thursday (June 15) with a first night lineup featuring headliner Zeds Dead, along with performances from Liquid Stranger, 070 Shake, Abraham Alexander, Big Freedia, Briscoe, Celisse, Cimafunk, Diarrhea Planet and more.
Things will crank up on Friday (June 16) with Lamar, as well as Keem, Vulpeck, Portugal. The Man, Noah Kahan, Subrontics, Fleet Foxes, AFI, Sylvan Esso, Rina Sawayama, Charley Crockett, Morgan Wade, Alex G, MUNA, Diesel, Knocked Loose, Matt Maeson, black midi and others.
Saturday’s (June 17) Odesza-topped bill will also feature Louis the Child, JID, Sheryl Crow, STS9, Sofi Tukker, Big Wild, The Band Camino, Jenny Lewis, Yung Gravy, Remi Wolf, Bob Moses, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and others before the Foos shut things down on Sunday (June 18) along with The Revivalists, Pixies, Umphrey’s McGee, Rebelution, Jacob Collier, Hippo Campus, Peach Pit, Franz Ferdinand and others.
An Early Access on-sale will open on Thursday (Jan. 12) at 11 a.m. ET here, with early sign-ups available now; a public on-sale will take place if there are any tickets left. Ticket packages will be available as 4-day general admission, GA+, VIP and Platinum, along with a limited amount of one-day tickets, general admission camping and parking passes and premium and pre-pitched glamping options. Details about the annual Superjam, Outeroo and Late Night lineups will be announced soon.
Check out the full lineup below.
It’s been 39 years since Bonnie Tyler first announced that she was waiting for her white knight, and Adam Lambert is done biding his time.
On Monday (Jan. 9), Lambert unveiled the official music video for his cover of Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero.” Bringing his version’s glam-rock stylings into the video, the Jordan Rossi-directed clip sees a disguised Lambert and a group of bedazzled helmet-wearing backup dancers start their performance of the song in a liminal, all-white space.
It doesn’t take long for Lambert to shed his sunglasses revealing a full-face of glittering makeup — and as he sings about needing to be saved by a hero, the singer instead takes on the role of the savior by removing the helmets from his backup dancers, allowing them to express their truest selves. By the end of the journey, a kilt-wearing Lambert is joined by an ensemble of queer performers, rocking out to the moody rendition of the track.
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“Holding Out For A Hero” is just one of the covers set to appear on Lambert’s upcoming new album High Drama. Due on Feb. 24, the album will see Adam covering classic rock artists like Culture Club, Noel Coward and Ann Peebles, while also offering his takes on more contemporary music by stars like Sia, Lana Del Rey, P!nk and Billie Eilish. His last single to be released off the album saw Lambert taking on an haunting version of Duran Duran’s 1993 hit “Ordinary World.”
Check out Lambert’s official video for “Holding Out For A Hero” above.
New year, new Paramore song. Just one month out from the release of its highly anticipated album This Is Why, the band surprised fans by teasing what looks like a new track nicknamed “ccc” — though many are confident that this is an acronym for its full French language title, “C’est Comme Ça.”
Lead vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro first set fans ablaze Sunday (Jan. 8) by posting a cryptic video to the band’s Instagram Stories. The letters “ccc” are backdropped by a glitching, pixelated screen while a brisk guitar riff repeats on a loop.
On Paramore’s official website, an announcement reads: “1.12 – ccc.”
It didn’t take long for fans to deduce that “ccc” likely stands for “C’est Comme Ça,” the title of one of 10 songs listed under the This Is Why album on Apple Music.
“What else could ccc mean besides the French title… paramore have punked us before this feels too easy,” one fan tweeted.
“CCC. C’EST COMME CA. PARAMORE. AH,” tweeted another along with a clip of the upcoming tune.
All signs point to the track being released Thursday (Jan. 12), which would mark the third single released by Paramore in the lead-up to the band’s Feb. 10-slated album.
“I wasn’t expecting another song before the album release i am shaking,” wrote one excited admirer on Twitter.
“Not paramore releasing a new song this week, 2023 has been so good to me so far,” tweeted another.
Paramore hasn’t put out an album since 2017’s After Laughter, and the band is just now making a comeback following a five-year hiatus, making This Is Why one of the most hotly anticipated releases of 2023. And on Dec. 8, the Nashville-based trio dropped the upcoming album’s second single, “The News,” along with a corresponding horror-themed music video.
Before “The News,” they released lead single and title track “This Is Why,” also with a music video. Both singles charted on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs ranking, the former peaking at No. 34 and the latter at No. 15.
On Feb. 6, the band will celebrate its new album’s release with an exclusive concert at the Grand Ole Opry in Paramore’s hometown of Nashville. The following month, Williams, York and Farro will embark on an arena tour, making a stop in Glendale, Ariz., to open for a couple of shows on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
Kelly Clarkson opened the Friday (Jan. 6) episode of her talk show with a cover of Duran Duran‘s “Ordinary World.”
Wearing a simple black dress and matching tights, the host extraordinaire sang, “Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue/ Thought I heard you talking softly/ I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio/ Still I can’t escape the ghost of you/ What has happened to it all?/ Crazy, some’d say/ Where is the life that I recognize?/ Gone away” before launching into the track’s high-flying chorus.
Originally released as the lead single from 1993’s Duran Duran (The Wedding Album), the soft rock ballad shot to No. 1 on the Pop Airplay chart and also landed at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band’s biggest hit since their 1985 James Bond theme “A View to a Kill.”
Coincidentally, fellow American Idol alum Adam Lambert also recently unveiled his rendition of “Ordinary World,” from his upcoming album of covers, High Drama, set for release this February.
During the show, Clarkson also welcomed Alison Williams to discuss her leading role in the new Blumhouse Productions horror flick M3GAN and introduced her audience to Bob Hearts Abishola star Folake Olowofoyeku’s very first music video for the song “Ehen Ehen Okay Okay.”
Other recent “Kellyoke” covers picked by Clarkson to kick off the new year include Ronnie Milsap’s “Lost in the Fifties Tonight,” Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee” and Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away.”
Watch Clarkson power through Duran Duran’s ’90s-era soft rock hit below.
